This files appears to be corrupted

[agreaves]

Hoping someone can help me with this - my book releases in a few weeks and I can't access anything I have worked on over the last week. Hoping it isn;t lost forever! 

1. Which Operating System are you using? Windows 10
2. Which version of Affinity did the file last get saved in? Affinity 2
3. What drive type was the file last saved to (select more than one if needed)?
   USB disk/Flash disk
    

4. Any other information you think would help us try to find the problem?

[v_kyr]

1 hour ago, agreaves said:

What drive type was the file last saved to (select more than one if needed)?
USB disk/Flash disk

That's probably the cause of all evil here, do a Forum or Google search after data losts, files which can't be opened anymore ... and the like ... which are mostly all related to when saving Affinity files directly on external storage (USB drives/sticks, NAS, cloud drives etc.), instead of the local disk file system.

And if you haven't created foolproof, continuous backups of your book work, the chances that things can be restored in an elegant way here are slim.

[agreaves]

6 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

And if you haven't created foolproof, continuous backups of your book work, the chances that things can be restored in an elegant way here are slim.

I always keep multiple backups for this very reason. Life just happened in this particular instance and I didn't get a chance to. Don't need to be made to feel any worse about it, but thanks! 

Also, I found this forum by doing a simple Google search. This comment (https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/109354-affinity-designer-file-is-corrupted-suddenly/page/10/#comment-1015291) specifically directed me to create this post. 

[v_kyr]

All you can do here on your own is, to copy all the related book files somewhere onto your local disk and then try to access/open it from there. And/or to tryout what NathanC wrote/described here in that thread as a common APub recovery procedure  ...

Other than that somebody (a moderator) from the Affinity team has to provide you an upload link so that they can give it some recovery try. - Hope dies last!

[agreaves]

8 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

Other than that somebody (a moderator) from the Affinity team has to provide you an upload link so that they can give it some recovery try. - Hope dies last!

Yes, that is what I am hoping for. I did try the suggestion you linked to as well, but no dice. Thank you. 

[stokerg]

Hi @agreaves,

I've created a Dropbox link here for you to upload your file to.

If the Add Pages from file trick with Publisher didn't work, then I'll likely need to log the file with the Developers for investigation.

[v_kyr]

IMO there should be some better and more meaningful FAQ entry made about this theme, as it's something which happens all the time here in the forum!

The FAQ entry should then list what should be avoided if possible in connection with external data storage and also tell what people can first tryout on their own, before asking the Affinity team for further help.

[stokerg]

42 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

IMO there should be some better and more meaningful FAQ entry made about this theme, as it's something which happens all the time here in the forum!

 

It's a good idea.  I've raised this internally and we'll see what we can do  

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, v_kyr said:

meaningful FAQ entry made about this theme, as it's something which happens all the time here in the forum!

The FAQ entry should then list what should be avoided if possible in connection with external data storage and also tell what people can first tryout on their own, before asking the Affinity team for further help.

1 hour ago, stokerg said:

It's a good idea.  I've raised this internally and we'll see what we can do

As a general FAQ, it may require a complex list of possible conditions as triggers for the known messages ... which may limit its usability as FAQ.

And, is it clear yet for Serif developers that specific setups indeed are the causing culprits for the various known errors and messages? (correlation vs. causality) I did experience these issues with locally stored data only and I even could solve some occasionally simply by trying the failing task again.

Also existing FAQ may conflict with such a general "don't do" FAQ. For instance, there appears to be no reason NOT to open an Affinity document via network (Google drive), while since v2.02. some were announced to be solved ("Failed to Save Document" / FAT), not to mentioned changes done in particular to v.2.2, for instance: "In addition, the currently active 2.2 beta apps include improvements to the app's file saving procedure and improvements to how the app handles saving files on external storage devices (…)". … which may require adding an "exceptions" list to a general "don't" FAQ.

[v_kyr]

18 minutes ago, thomaso said:

NOT to open an Affinity document via network (Google drive),

The above one was addressed only to iPad (iPadOS) users!

Further some FAQs already name explicite versions (V2.2 or V2.11), or in a more general fashion V2, so somehow where applicable so far, but this could be of course always be optimized to more actual version findings.